As a former waiter and son of a former waitress, I know and value customer service. I know what servers go through and how they make their scratch. I hate to leave a bad tip. Today was one of those days.
I came in to get some breakfast before work. The last time I came in for breakfast, I was able to get the Early Bird Special for $3.99. I missed the cutoff for this deal by just a few minutes and the price almost doubles to $5.99. Oh wells.
You get 2 eggs, 2 pieces of sausage, a very small portion of home fries and 2 pieces of toast for 6 bucks. The sausage tasted like crap. All I could taste was the greasiness of the pork fat. The eggs were cooked how I ordered them (its hard to get over medium in Pittsburgh). The eggs were cold, though. So was the toast and the sausage was lukewarm. The only thing warm on my plate were the potatoes and that's only because they were covered by the toast.
I drank my glass of water and it took the server about 5 minutes to refill it even though I was at the counter and she passed by me several times. After I finished my second glass with my meal, it sat empty up until I left.
Before my server brought me my food, she disappeared for about 8 minutes. Just long enough for a smoke break. I can't say for certain that this is what she did but eating cold eggs is tough. All in all it took about 20 minutes for my breakfast to arrive and I was pressed for time so I didn't argue and just ate my cold breakfast and paid and left.
They were busy, I can understand that, but that's no excuse to serve someone cold food. I've been there in the past when I was drunk and maybe this is why I never minded the piss poor service and low food quality before. This is the last time I eat at Tom's.